Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:
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Nov. 2
The Washington Post says while the economy is growing, purchasing power is not
The economy is strong by …
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Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:
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Nov. 2
The Washington Post says while the economy is growing, purchasing power is not
The economy is strong by conventional measures, but most voters don’t feel it. Gross domestic product grew 3.4 percent in the third quarter, the fastest pace in a year. Consumer spending increased 3.8 percent, and nonresidential business investment surged 12.7 percent, propelled by artificial intelligence and the data center build-out.
At the same time, the final Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll before the midterms found that 75 percent of Americans describe the economy as poor or not so good. Forty-eight percent say they’re financially not as well off since President Donald Trump took office, more than three times the 15 percent who say they’re better off. Fewer than 3 in 10 Americans approve of how Trump is handling the economy.
Democrats are favored to flip the House on Tuesday and have a real chance to capture the Senate. Persistent inflation, more than anything else, explains why the party in power is not receiving more credit for economic growth, low unemployment, deregulation, stock market gains and historic levels of capital investment.
Inflation has been a problem since Washington pumped trillions of dollars in stimulus into the economy during the covid pandemic. While inflation has cooled from its 9.1 percent peak in 2022, Trump has contributed to rising prices with unnecessary tariffs, an overzealous immigration crackdown and the Iran war, which has raised energy costs.
Inflation is a corrosive stealth tax that makes people feel like they’re not getting ahead. Average hourly earnings rose 3 percent over the past year, but consumer prices climbed 3.7 percent. As a result, real hourly earnings fell 0.7 percent. Gasoline jumped 9.1 percent in September and is now 34.2 percent more expensive than a year ago.
No wonder affordability is front and center. Nearly two-thirds of campaign ads in competitive races last week mentioned the economy.
The squeeze is especially acute in districts that will determine House control. A Post analysis last week found that 6 in 10 families cannot afford the basic cost of living in the 46 most competitive districts. Between 2019 and 2024, median costs rose 33 percent while median incomes rose 28 percent. Incomes failed to keep pace with costs in 42 of the 46 districts.
Trump won in 2024 by promising relief from those pressures. Some of his policies are instead aggravating them. Take tariffs. Federal Reserve researchers found that tariffs imposed in 2025 raised core goods prices 3.1 percent through February. Yale’s Budget Lab estimated that the tariffs in place over the summer would raise consumer prices about 0.7 percent, costing the average household roughly $1,100 annually.
Immigration enforcement creates another artificial constraint on supply. In South Texas, construction payrolls have fallen 5 percent over the past year because of deportations that contribute to worker shortages. Cattle groups say sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are also disrupting the beef supply, including by frightening legal workers away from jobs.
The right solution to these frustrations is not to promise government checks, which would fuel inflation. Farmers need free markets, not government money compensating them for the consequences of tariffs.
An effective affordability agenda would remove government-created obstacles. Scrap tariffs that make imported goods and manufacturing inputs more expensive. Maintain secure borders while expanding lawful avenues for workers needed for farms, factories and construction sites. Remove permitting barriers so Americans can build more homes, factories, power plants and transmission lines. And encourage more domestic energy production.
Politicians in both parties need to be honest with voters about what taming inflation looks like. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates in September and may need to do so again to cool pricing pressures. Returning to the Fed’s 2 percent target will not bring groceries, rent or restaurant menus back to 2019 prices. Success means today’s high prices will merely rise more slowly.
The only sustainable way to actually restore purchasing power is for productivity and wages to grow faster than prices. Fortunately, last week’s GDP report offers evidence that this can happen if government gets out of the way. Businesses are investing enormous sums in new technology and productive capacity because they see opportunities to make money.
That is the paradox of today’s economy: Markets are producing significant growth while government policy makes life more expensive. The right response to bad midterm results for the White House would be to let rising productivity, rather than protectionism or government giveaways, make Americans richer.
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Oct. 29
The Wall Street Journal says the U.S. investment boom has arrived
It’s hard to recall a time with such a large disconnect between how Americans feel about the economy and the data. The Commerce Department on Thursday reported that GDP grew 3.4% in the third quarter thanks to surging business investment and buoyant consumer spending. So why are Americans so glum?
By objective measures, the economy is firing on most cylinders. Consumer spending remains healthy and contributed 2.52 percentage points to the third-quarter GDP increase. Even if consumers fume about higher prices, they aren’t tightening their belts. Spending on motor vehicles, household furnishings, restaurants and travel increased.
Business investment accounted for 1.78 percentage points of third-quarter GDP and grew at the fastest rate in 15 years, aside from the Covid lockdown bounceback in 2020’s third quarter. The AI boom is the main driver, but deregulation and the 2025 tax reforms, especially 100% business expensing, have also provided a lift.
Information processing equipment made up roughly half of the investment increase, while intellectual property (IP) chipped in 0.47 percentage points. IP investment slowed during the last two years of the Biden Presidency after business tax expensing for research and development ended in 2022. The 2025 GOP tax bill restored it. IP investment has increased at an average annual rate of 9.7% in President Trump’s second term, versus 4% in the last two Biden years. Pro-growth policy matters.
Investment in equipment and technology boosts productivity, which will ultimately lift wages. Productivity slowed last decade, partly from sluggish business investment in the Obama years, but looks to be regaining its historical stride. Labor productivity has increased at an average 2.25% annual rate since January 2025, compared to 1.3% from 2010 to 2019.
Net exports subtracted 3.32 percentage points from top-line GDP growth owing to increased imports. But this is a deceptive artifact of the national accounts, since imports flow into consumer spending and investment. Imports of computer chips, gas turbines, copper and more help fuel the investment boom.
Mr. Trump says the strong GDP growth is evidence his border taxes are working. Sorry, no. Tariffs are a drag on growth. Investment in manufacturing plants declined 4% in the third quarter and has fallen 36% in his second term. Border taxes have increased uncertainty and business costs, which make it harder for manufacturers to invest.
While the President might point to a new steel plant owing to his 50% steel tariffs, how much investment isn’t happening because of tariffs? U.S. steel prices have increased 52% over the past year and are about two-thirds higher than in Europe. That’s a killer for U.S. makers of appliances, machinery and electric power equipment.
The other major drag on growth is housing, which subtracted 0.12 percentage points from third-quarter GDP. Higher interest rates are the main culprit, but the silver lining is that the housing slowdown has freed up workers for other projects like data centers. Construction firms say they struggle to find workers because of an aging workforce and deportations.
Nearly two-thirds of builders said immigration enforcement is affecting their workforce, compared to 13% a year ago, according to a John Burns Research and Consulting survey. Immigration raids have forced beef processing plants to reduce production. One result: Higher beef prices. The raids have also become a liability for Kansas GOP Sen. Roger Marshall.
“These ICE operations are having a massive chilling effect on the legal, documented, skilled workers that put beef on the table and keep the cattle supply chain moving,” cattle industry groups in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas warned last month. “These types of disruptions will lead to higher beef prices for consumers.”
Therein lies the main source of voter unhappiness: Inflation. The personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, fell to an annualized 2.1% in the third quarter. But the inflation hangover from the Biden years plus tariffs, combined with the surge in gas prices from the Iran war, have voters in a sour mood.
The U.S. economy in Mr. Trump’s second term is in many ways a story of what might have been. Deregulation, AI and tax cuts have led to an investment and productivity boom, but inflation and antigrowth tariffs and mass deportation are diminishing what could be a broader prosperity. The GOP may pay a political price next week.
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Oct. 30
The Boston Globe says Donald Trump is playing political games with the US census
Conducted once every ten years, the US census is the most reliable source of US population data. It’s used to apportion congressional seats, allocate funding for education and transportation, and as a baseline for statistics like poverty and mortality rates. It’s vital that the census accurately reflect who is living where.
President Trump has proposed changes to the census that would jeopardize the accuracy of the count. These changes would almost certainly lead to undercounting Massachusetts’ population, resulting in less funding and potentially the loss of a congressional seat.
Governor Maura Healey, in a statement to the editorial board, called the proposed changes “another example of President Trump trying to undermine our democracy and take away people’s voice.”
Massachusetts’ elected officials and congressional delegation, as well as organizations and residents who would be affected, should submit public comments to the US Census Bureau before the public comment period ends Nov. 2 and should use their bully pulpit to oppose the changes. Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin told the editorial board that he anticipates Massachusetts will file or join in a lawsuit should the rules be finalized. That would be the right move.
There are several proposed changes, but two that would have the biggest impact are changing the time period during which residency is established and excluding certain noncitizens.
A 1790 law requires the census to count people in their “usual residence,” which has been interpreted to mean anyone living in a place as of April 1 each census year. For the 2030 Census, the Census Bureau is proposing to instead count people based on their usual residence during a newly established “enumeration period” of Jan. 3 through April 1 in a census year. The bureau said Jan. 3 was chosen because it’s halfway through a congressional term and that “clearly defining a relevant period leading up to April 1 is preferable to leaving the issue open-ended and uncertain.”
The problem with creating that time period is the count will be biased against colder northern states in favor of warmer southern states where “snowbirds” spend winters. If someone spends nine months of the year in Massachusetts, but winters in Florida, they would be counted as Florida residents. In a presentation before the state Senate Committee on the Census, Susan Strate, senior program manager for the Population Estimates Program at the UMass Donahue Institute, said there is no way to know how many snowbirds live in Massachusetts. But the impact could be particularly acute in places like Cape Cod, where many retired residents spend winters elsewhere. The Cape Cod Commission estimated in written testimony that nearly 18,000 residents would be excluded from the count due to the proposed enumeration period.
Another major change would be the exclusion of residents without permanent immigration status. The Census Bureau, in explaining the proposed changes, argued that immigrants without legal status “lack … a sufficient tie and allegiance to the United States” to be counted as inhabitants for purposes of apportioning political representation. It proposes excluding not just immigrants without legal status but also those with temporary status “whose legal status is less durable and indefinite in length” than permanent residents. That means the count would include US citizens and green card holders, but not international students, international college faculty, skilled workers on H-1B visas, refugees, asylum seekers, people with temporary legal status, and people without legal status.
The problem with this change is people without permanent status are living in Massachusetts and using our schools, hospitals, and roads. Massachusetts needs the funding that flows based on census numbers to invest in this infrastructure. For example, an area with lots of college students will need to invest in public transit, regardless of whether those students were born in Massachusetts or China.
Jessie Partridge Guerrero, director of data services for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, told the editorial board that an estimated 300,000 Massachusetts residents could be excluded from the census count because of immigration status.
The Trump administration also intends to stop asking questions about race — which have been on each census since 1790 — ethnicity, and sexual orientation. This would result in a loss of important data, which is used for research and for tailoring services to specific populations. For example, the data could be used to determine where to offer targeted public health interventions, like programs to prevent opioid overdoses among Native Americans.
The census is too important to play political games with. The Trump administration should withdraw its proposed rule changes and focus on ensuring an accurate count of all US residents.
ONLINE: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/10/30/opinion/census-accuracy-massachusetts-trump/
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Oct. 28
The Guardian on Israel's elections and Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu has lost his mandate but not, so far, power. While final votes are still being tallied, most voters picked his opponents on Tuesday. His bloc’s share of seats remains the largest, but appears to have slumped by around 10, leaving it below the 61 needed for a majority in the Knesset. Palestinian Israeli parties surged, and are projected to almost double the 10 seats they held. The result is that Mr Netanyahu’s main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, a former head of the military, now faces a choice: fall into line with Mr Netanyahu’s racist fearmongering or work with Arab-led parties.
The prime minister who oversaw shocking security failures ahead of the Hamas atrocities of 7 October 2023 still pitches himself as “Mr Security”. On trial for corruption, he has persistently attacked democratic institutions, especially the judiciary. He embraced and then indulged the ultra-right as they cheered on brutal settler violence in the occupied West Bank. (Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich lost ground in these polls, but perhaps due to their vision’s permeation of mainstream politics more than a revolt against it.) Mr Netanyahu’s war on Iran has destabilised the region. The tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by his government’s genocidal war on Gaza have barely featured in the election campaign, but its cost for Israeli hostages and international support for Israel have been noted by voters.
Mr Netanyahu relied on fear, campaigning with the slogan “the right or Palestine” and accusing Palestinian citizens of Israel, around a fifth of its population, of trying to “steal the election”. They have often boycotted their democratic right, in a system stacked against them, with politics moving rightwards. Mr Eisenkot’s bloc gives them little reason for optimism; Tuesday’s turnout testifies to their desperation to see an end to the most extreme government in Israel’s history. Millions of Palestinians living under illegal Israeli occupation got no vote at all.
Mr Netanyahu, the consummate survivor, may pin his hopes on another election. For now, as incumbent, he holds extra cards. The greatest danger is that he pushes Donald Trump into a renewed offensive on Iran after the midterms, seeing perma-war as political salvation.
Mr Eisenkot, one of many burned by their dealings with the prime minister, is unlikely to risk a “unity government”. His bloc could remove Mr Netanyahu “if it is brave enough”, observed Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List ticket of Palestinian parties. In campaigning, most opposition Israeli politicians ruled out a coalition with the Joint List or Ra’am (the United Arab List) – except on terms that they will not accept. But the Palestinian parties have made clear that they are open to cooperation and there is precedent. Mr Netanyahu himself reportedly made overtures to Ra’am in 2021; instead it joined the coalition that unseated him.
“We can no longer accept Netanyahu’s racist distinction between Jewish and Arab votes,” wrote Yair Golan, head of the centre-left Democrats – noting that Mr Netanyahu talks of a Zionist majority but relies on the support of non-Zionist Haredi parties. Mr Eisenkot may fear that supporters will not tolerate a deal but they will not thank him for failing to boot out Mr Netanyahu when given the chance. That would also allow the prime minister to turn this result into an ideological victory. Israel defines itself as Jewish and democratic. Mr Eisenkot and his partners should accept every vote and citizen as equal.
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Nov. 1
The Dallas Morning News say Donald Trump squandered his win on border security
Conspicuously absent from the campaign trail this election season has been the old standby issue of border security. The Trump administration did what none before has done and essentially shut down illegal crossings on the southern border. It remains quiet, and there is no longer the chaos of migrants arriving in droves.
This was a Republican win, and the silence of Democrats about the wall tells just how successful it was. In fact, when Democratic candidates speak to us about the border, it’s all in favor of security. And plenty are now quick to blame President Joe Biden for failing to act.
The problem today is the Trump administration’s irresponsible overreach. Voters wanted a secure border, not the widespread arrests of immigrants with no criminal history or the aggressive tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, including incidents in which U.S. citizens have been killed.
ICE is just part of the political problem. With the border secure, the GOP lost a potent political issue that had broad support.
Instead of filling the gap with substantial concerns that also could get broad support, Republicans turned to made up enemies like legal immigrants and transgenderism.
Fake mailers from a purported trans rights group are the strongest example of a desperate effort to gin up voter anger, but Texas Republicans have also falsely claimed there is an election fraud problem in our state, with little evidence, despite exhaustive audits and investigations.
Lately on the campaign trail, they have made Sharia a priority despite no evidence that communities are using this religious framework to replace civil law. The consequence is anti-Muslim discrimination.
Open racism like Railroad Commission candidate Bo French’s targeting of American students of Indian descent marks another low that shows making enemies is the main political strategy.
And so much for courting the Hispanic vote that helped turn border districts red.
In Starr County, with a heavily Latino population, voters along the U.S.-Mexico border favored Trump by 16 points in the last presidential election. But polling suggests the GOP is now facing an uphill battle.
These voters are no different than a majority of Americans, who favor a nation of laws, but also a nation of decency and balance. That includes a respect for the dignity of all people, including migrants.
Under Trump, Republicans enjoyed great policy success on the border. All they have done since is squander the advantage.
